A satisfactory increase of 13,6% was recorded in the arrivals of the winter season November 2016 - March 2017, compared to the corresponding period last year, a conclusion drawn from the official data of the Statistical Service for the arrivals of March 2017, announced today.
According to an announcement by the Cyprus Tourism Organization (CTO), this is the third consecutive winter season (November - March) where a satisfactory increase is recorded. Specifically, during the reporting period, in 2014-2015 there was an increase of 9,5%, in 2015-2016 an increase of 33,4% and this year, as already mentioned, an increase of 13,6%, recording the number of arrivals at around 498.000, which ranks the coming winter as the second best of all time in number of arrivals and confirms the finding that the great, universal effort to improve seasonality is well on its way.
In terms of arrival performance in 2017, in the first quarter there was an overall increase of 13,5%, with almost all major markets moving upwards (UK + 3,6%, Russia + 88,4%, Israel +65,9 %, Greece 16,9% etc). Exceptions were Germany and the Nordic countries, but it is estimated that arrivals will improve later this year. It is worth noting that the period January 2017 - March 2017 did not include the Easter of the Catholic Church, something that happened in the previous analogous period, which is expected to count positively on the performance for the four months January 2017 - April 2017.
In addition, it is underlined that March 2017 is recorded as the most successful March in terms of arrivals in the history of Cypriot tourism, even without including the Easter of the Catholic Church.
Another positive and remarkable event, it is noted, is that the last twelve months (April 2016 - March 2017) is the twelve months with the largest number of arrivals in Cyprus, with a total of 3.220.616 tourist arrivals. A share of 36,1% of these arrivals came from the United Kingdom, 25,0% from Russia, 6,5% from the Nordic countries, 5,1% from Greece, 4,9% from Israel and 3,7 , XNUMX% from Germany.
Source: KYPE